Saturday Social

This has been a rough week and I'm glad it's finally over. It's probably plain to see, since the Saturday Social is being posted on Sunday. *blush* I prefer to keep my blog light and funny, but I just can't be that today. I'm not feeling very humorous.

School expenses continue to pile up. I think I've written about this before. What happened to a free public education? Our mandatory school expenses have exceeded $500. Tuesday we have to pay another $40 for choir dress hemming, purchase several dozen cookies, and start collecting money for a fundraiser. The expenses have been such a strain on our budget. What really REALLY irks me is that money is being charged to us and we have to pay it. I feel like we're being held hostage.

What could be sadder than that? We are not a rich group of people. This year 49% of kids in our section of the school district qualified for free or reduced lunch prices. Dude! That's HALF of the student body! Our family applied, but we make too much money. WTF? We missed the "cut off" by $15. School lunches cost $2.50 but everything is served a'la carte. A'la carte! You can't just order a lunch. A $2.50 "standard" lunch. No, the kids have to go thru the line and order individual items. You can't just get a lunch. Even if my daughter orders just a few items and a drink it is never less than $3. So, our $15 per year over the cut-off that denies us reduced lunches, translates into $60 per month in lunch charges. I think the school should have to take our total income, subtract the cost of attending school, then calculate our reduced/free lunch eligibility.

Grr. Thanks for reading my rant. I'm going to crawl into bed and cry now.

Heather